Over the weekend my wife and I went to Monarto Zoo to have breakfast with the Lions, well with the keepers really because the lions were still in their cages. Monarto is an open plains Zoo and all the animals have large paddocks to roam around in the way you normally see the animals is via tour buses, the buses enter the paddocks through double gates for the most part and triple for the carnivores. The animals a very used to seeing the buses so you get right up close to them, its a good system as the animals have heaps of room to roam around much better than your normal little zoo cages. So what we did was there was a breakfast set up just outside the Lions night quarters where a group of people were treated to a hearty breakfast with the keepers and a big talk and question session about the Lions. all the while the Lions were pacing back and forth around 1.5m away from us staring at us while we were trying to eat our breakfast. It must be said its a little disconcerting sitting there eating breakfast while there is a hungry 220kg Lion watching you. Following Breakfast the keepers set about releasing the Lions into their large enclosure all the while explaining how and why they do what the do. It was a extremely enjoyable morning and very informative plus there where some excellent photo opportunity to be had. Sony Nex f3 kit 55-210 and yes in some of there I even used the dreaded Digital Zoom Our next adventure up there will be in a few weeks where we get to meet 3 hand raised adult male Cheetahs these are so tame that we actually get to enter their cage and take them for a walk and give them a good pat, apparently they are just like big domestic cats and love a rub under the chin and a scratch behind the ear. They also purr very loudly and often Meeoww like a cat.
A few more of the locals This is 1 of the cheetahs we get to pat maybe we will wait until he has finished his lunch though Cybershot HX30V
Isn't it amazing how much different these shots are than those taken in a conventional zoo? While most zoos do a credible job creating believable enclosures for the animals they are usually limited by the space available. It is nice to see pics of wild animals in a more natural environment.
Some of these enclosures wouldn't be much smaller than the natural ranges for some of these species. I believe they have an area of around 10,000 hectares and that it is the largest Zoo in the Southern hemisphere. The Cheetahs even have enough room to get up to their full speed of around 80kph, just the walking trail between the enclosures is 11k's long. It really is the way a Zoo should be, not set up to be ideal for the public but rather set up for the animals benefit.
Well sort of but probably not what most people would call PP. The extent of my skill with PP is limited to auto enhance and cropping , I just can't get my head around all that stuff. So most but not all of these shots have had some cropping and auto enhancing.
